


The Speedos Incident

by quicksilversquared



Series: An Unfortunate Series of Showers [2]
Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Gen, Speedos, unnecessary shower scenes, very mildly suggestive in places but nothing worse I swear
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-26
Updated: 2016-08-26
Packaged: 2018-08-11 05:52:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,561
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7878982
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/quicksilversquared/pseuds/quicksilversquared
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After Adrien's fencing coach suffers an injury, Adrien takes up swimming to fill in the time slot. He wasn't expecting the Speedos.</p><p>He also wasn't expecting an akuma to attack while he was wearing the Speedos.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Speedos Incident

It all started when Mr. D'Argencourt fell down the stairs and broke both his ankle and his shoulder, putting fencing lessons on hold for an indeterminate amount of time.

"You need another activity to fill that time slot," Mr. Agreste told Adrien (well, Nathalie told Adrien after Mr. Agreste told her) as soon as he heard the news. "Mr. D'Argencourt will be out for quite a while recovering."

"I can't just have the time off?" Adrien asked hopefully, giving his father's secretary his best kitten eyes. "Please, Nathalie, I promise I'll stay in shape. I can go running or something."

Nathalie peered at him sternly, totally unswayed by the expression. "Activities such as running would make it difficult for your bodyguard or I to keep track of you unless we could find a track with a suitable gym. Your father prefers that you participate in organized activities."

 _Of course he does,_ Adrien thought sourly as his expression fell. _That way he can make sure I'm always being watched_.

"I have already found something for you to do. Swim team, meeting three times a week." Nathalie scrolled through her tablet. "It's not a super-competitive team, which is why they don't meet more often, and also why you've been accepted a week into training without any entrance test."

Adrien blinked. "I don't think I've actually gone swimming for over a year."

"You'll remember it, I'm sure. The coach seems very competent."

 _Competent_ really didn't mean much. _Friendly_ would have been better. _Understanding_ , maybe.

"Please find your old swimsuit and try it on before tomorrow. If it doesn't fit or you can't find it, let me know right away and I can put in an order. I've already ordered goggles and a swim cap for you."

Adrien's shoulders slumped, resigned. There was very rarely any point to arguing with Nathalie or his father.

He would just have to hope that he remembered enough from his swimming lessons as a kid not to make a fool of himself.

* * *

"A _Speedo?_ " Adrien spluttered, incredulous.

The coach didn't look particularly impressed with Adrien's spluttering. "Yes, of course. You have to be streamlined in the water, which the kind of swimsuit _you_ are wearing just doesn't allow for. Even if we aren't a top competing team, we are hardly slackers."

Adrien resisted the urge to flinch away at the coach's irritated expression. He hadn't been particularly happy to have the Gorilla sitting in the bleachers around the pool, then he had told Adrien off for not leaving his bag (with Plagg) in the locker room, and now this. Adrien was pretty sure that he was giving off major "spoiled-rich-kid" vibes.

"You can swim like this for the day, but I expect that you have the proper swimwear by our next practice." Another dubious side-eye. "And we _do_ require swim caps, especially for longer hair such as yours."

"I have a swim cap!" Adrien assured the coach. He pulled it out of his swimsuit pocket along with his goggles.

"Good. Put it and the goggles on and get in. I want to see how you do in the water."

Adrien gulped as soon as the coach walked off. He _knew_ he should have gotten in at least a little practice before coming. If the coach wasn't impressed with him now, Adrien could only imagine what he would be like after seeing Adrien swim. He could only hope that he wouldn't be tossed off the team within the first practice.

His father would _not_ be pleased.

Tucking his hair into the dark green swim cap, Adrien surveyed the rest of the pool Sure enough, all of the other boys were dressed in Speedos. Some of the boys were definitely better swimmers than the others, but Adrien suspected that all of them would be far better than him.

Adrien took a deep breath and climbed down into the pool quickly, not letting the cool water dissuade him. He ducked his head underwater, making sure his goggles were properly in place before letting his eyes blink open.

At least Chat Noir's feline tendencies didn't extend to hating the water. _That_ would make things even more difficult.

* * *

After the first disastrous meeting, things started to go better for Adrien during his swimming practices. The Speedo came quickly, so Adrien was properly dressed (and incredibly uncomfortable) for his second practice. Thankfully the other boys hadn't really caught on to the swimsuit drama Adrien had had in his first practice and they didn't seem to care that he had joined after practices had started, so several had been willing to give Adrien tips on how to improve his swimming.

And improve Adrien did. He was already pretty strong from his various other activities and he had a talent for picking up physical activities pretty quickly. It didn't take long for him to become one of the fastest swimmers on the team. Probably the only thing that kept some of the other boys from resenting him was the fact that the coach still wasn't very fond of him and wasn't shy about showing it. Adrien was _incredibly_ lucky that there hadn't been any akuma attacks during the practices, because he was positive that the coach wouldn't be even a little lenient about him missing part of practice. He _had_ been able to persuade the Gorilla to stop sitting in on the practices, which only reduced the coach's frosty demeanor towards him slightly.

What didn't change at all was Adrien's distaste of the Speedos. It was, without a doubt, the least clothes Adrien had ever worn out in public since he was a clothes-hating, often-nude toddler. While they were _technically_ the right size, they hugged his body a little _too_ much for his comfort and they just showed _so. much. skin_.

Of course, being the good friend that he was, Nino would _not. stop. laughing._ when Adrien told him about the swimming practices and his new swimsuit.

"I can't help it, dude. You look so _disgusted_ with the whole Speedos aspect." Nino chortled again. "None of your fangirls have shown up to watch, have they? I bet they'd love to see you shirtless and in the tightest swimsuit known to mankind."

"The Gorilla sits watch outside the pool during practices. He offered to go sit in the cafe across the street instead if I didn't want him hovering, but I'm honestly terrified that word will get out somehow." Adrien glanced around them, still feeling a bit paranoid about it. "I mean, I'm sure _most_ of the fangirls are perfectly nice people who wouldn't burst in or anything, but there's a couple that just..."

"I get ya, man." Nino clapped Adrien on the shoulder. Then he grinned again. "Yeah, Chloe showing up _would_ be a nightmare, wouldn't it?"

"Don't even tease." Adrien shuddered. "That's exactly why I keep the Gorilla on-site. He's one of the only people who isn't scared to pull Chloe off of me. He just gives her this _look_ when she starts going 'My father will hear about this'."

Nino snickered before pelting Adrien with more questions. "What are you going to do about competitions? Didn't you say you had those? Surely they aren't closed to the public."

"I'll wear a towel and a t-shirt whenever I'm not in the water." Even though swimming meets were still a ways out, the idea still was putting Adrien on edge. Nino was right- the meets _were_ open to the public- and if any of his more rabid fangirls (or Chloe) found out that he would be swimming...

Well, that was what the Gorilla was for.

* * *

The list of who was going to be competing in what race of their first meet of the season was going to be posted at the end of practice after everyone had gotten out of the pool. Even though they knew that everybody would be swimming in at least one race, most of the boys hung around so that they could see the lists as soon as possible.

Adrien took the opportunity to hurry off to the locker room, shower, and change. While he had gotten used to wearing the Speedos in the water, he was still uncomfortable in them the rest of the time. They _really_ didn't leave much to the imagination, especially when they were wet and clingy. So when Adrien got the chance to shower and change without others around, he took it.

After all, the lists were still going to be there when he was back in normal, comfortable, _non-skin-revealing_ clothes.

Adrien turned on the shower and stepped back into the spray, peeling off his swim cap as he did. His hair tumbled out and immediately plastered itself to his face. Adrien shoved it back with a sigh as he washed the chlorine from the pool out of his hair and off of his skin, letting his mind wander as he lathered up his shampoo and rinsed it out of his hair. He hadn't seen Ladybug for several days thanks to a sudden lack of akuma attacks and he definitely missed her.

The Ladyblog was not helping him deal with the hiatus. Alya was taking advantage of the lull to post people's pictures from past attacks, which included a number of photos from the time when Ladybug had crashed in on him showering. After seeing a those pictures, Adrien closed the tab and swore not to check the Ladyblog again until there was another attack.

He _still_ couldn't believe that he had pulled on his Ladybug-themed boxers and hadn't even noticed until later.

_Thanks a lot for buying those for me, Nino. Really appreciate it, dude._

There still weren't any footsteps coming down the hallway and to the locker room. Adrien fidgeted with the waistband of his Speedos, trying to decide if he wanted to take them off. Showering with them on was yet another thing he wasn't used to doing, though he definitely wasn't comfortable showering naked in a room full of other people. Some of the other guys on his team seemed to have no problem with it, but Adrien was just too private of a person.

(Besides, he was still a little worried that rabid fangirls would break in at any moment, even with the Gorilla guarding the locker room entrance.)

But he was alone now, and without the chatter of the rest of his team it would be easy to hear anyone approaching. His Speedos were getting _seriously_ uncomfortable. Adrien hooked his thumbs into the elastic waistband, tugging downwards-

And then the screaming started.

Adrien froze, swimsuit clinging low on his hips as he stared in the direction of the swimming pool-side locker room door. With the echoing hallways, it was hard to tell if the screaming was of joy or of terror. Surely someone hadn't been akumatized? Their team was supposed to be for fun, not for glory, so everyone got at least one race to be in no matter what skill level they had.

Another scream echoed down the hall and Adrien hurried to wash the conditioner out of his hair. Those were sounding suspiciously like terrified screams, and if there _was_ an akuma then he needed to hurry up and get out there. There was no way he could transform with conditioner in his hair, though. It would be a dead giveaway.

Just as Adrien rinsed the last of the conditioner out of his hair and turned the water off, the locker room door on the far side opened with a _bang_. Curious, Adrien stepped forward into the doorway between the showers and the rest of the locker room.

He hadn't been expecting the familiar red-and-black blur that immediately slammed into him, sending them both crashing down onto the floor in a mess of tangled limbs. For one long moment, both Adrien and Ladybug were frozen as they stared at each other. Adrien could only find the presence of mind to thank his lucky stars that he _hadn't_ managed to pull his swimsuit off before the screaming started because if he was naked and they were in this position...

 _Awkward_.

Okay, well, _more_ awkward. As it was, Adrien was still hoping that this was all a really bad dream. Was accidentally being naked in front of Ladybug _once_ not enough?

He must have been a terrible person in a previous life. Maybe he kicked kittens. That was the only explanation for why this kept happening.

Even if he wasn't naked in front of Ladybug again, the Speedos weren't a huge improvement. Not only were they skimpy (he was _never_ going to do underwear photoshoots, _ever_ ), they really didn't hide much and _maaaaaybe_ Adrien shouldn't have let his mind wander so much earlier when he was in the shower. It didn't help his situation at all that Ladybug was still sitting on top of him.

Ladybug recovered first, even as her cheeks went bright red.

"HOW ARE YOU ALWAYS IN THE SHOWER?"

"Whoops?" Adrien offered weakly, wishing he could vanish through the floor.

" _Whoops?!"_

Adrien winced, looking everywhere _except_ at Ladybug. His luck was almost _impossibly_ bad, honestly, and Adrien was wondering how the situation could possibly get any worse when he noticed Plagg out of the corner of his eye. The little monster was hovering in _plain sight_ in the doorway, snickering silently as he ate something from a greasy paper bag- was that _popcorn?_

Adrien was going to kill the kwami as soon as he got his hands on him.

"Sorry for knocking you over," Ladybug continued, still blushing but not moving from her position on top of Adrien. He was going to die if she didn't get off of him soon, because he wasn't strong enough to deal with Ladybug straddling him and looking down at him with those big blue eyes and-

Nope, he was stopping _those_ thoughts before they went any further.

Ladybug plowed on, oblivious to Adrien's imminent death. "I was just in a hurry, and these locker rooms were the closest to the entrance, so I didn't really stop to read the sign on the door-"

"It's fine!" Adrien squeaked. He winced at how high-pitched his voice came out. "So, uh, there's an akuma?"

"Yeah, in the swimming pool area- RIGHT!" Ladybug suddenly squeaked, shooting up off of Adrien in one blindingly fast move. "The akuma! I'm going there! Right now! Sorry! Stay safe, hot stuff!"

A second later, the door slammed shut behind her as Adrien stared a bit blankly at the place where she had just been moments before.

_Hot stuff?_

Adrien's face flamed even as he picked himself up off the floor. As he dusted himself off, he could already tell that he was probably going to bruise, both from the floor and where Ladybug had rammed into him. He turned towards the locker room, hoping that he could change into normal clothes before he ran into Ladybug again. He couldn't handle any more half-dressed encounters today.

The door opened again and a squeak froze Adrien in his tracks. He twisted his head around to look, hoping that the akuma hadn't come for him and that it was one of his teammates instead.

What he saw was Ladybug's head sticking around the corner, her eyes locked on his derrière. A second later her eyes slid up and her cheeks went red as she realized that she had been caught.

Adrien blinked, frozen like a deer in the headlights.

"I- I meant to tell you!" Ladybug blurted as her cheeks turned steadily redder. "The, ah, akuma is after you because of the, uh, swimsuit, so...maybe throw something on top of it?"

With that, she was gone again.

Plagg howled with laughter.

"What do you think you were _doing?_ " Adrien demanded, whipping his head back around to glare at his kwami. "Ladybug could have seen you! And where did you get that popcorn?"

"Ladybug was too busy staring at you to notice me," Plagg said, infuriatingly unconcerned as he reached deeper into the bag and pulled out another orange-dusted piece of popcorn. "And you didn't pack enough cheese, so I had to go out and find my own. This stuff is tasty."

"Someone could have seen you!"

Plagg snorted, tossing the popcorn into the air and practically inhaling it. Adrien briefly wished that the kwami would choke on it. "I was careful."

"Yeah, you always say that but I'm inclined not to believe you." It only took a second for Adrien to figure out where Plagg had gotten his snack; there was a fundraiser stand in the lobby, and he had smelled popcorn earlier as he passed. How Plagg could have possibly travelled from the locker rooms in the basement of the facility up a set of stairs, across the always-occupied lobby and back- _plus_ the actual stealing of the popcorn bag- without being noticed was still a mystery.

Another scream echoed down the hall, jolting Adrien into action. Rather than trying to change out of his swimsuit, he just toweled himself off quickly and tugged a shirt and shorts over his Speedos. There was _no way_ he was going to change properly until he was _positive_ that both Ladybug and the akuma were gone. His embarrassment quota for the day was _definitely_ full at this point.

"So, you and Ladybug put on quite the show there," Plagg prodded when it became apparent when Adrien wasn't going to say anything. The little god was grinning evilly. "All your dreams come true, eh?"

"That was awful," Adrien groaned, rubbing a towel through his hair one last time before tossing it onto the bench. "I wish we didn't need Speedos. A normal swimsuit would have been so much better."

Plagg licked his paws off. "I don't see the difference. You still would have a bare chest and legs."

"Normal swimsuits aren't as tight."

Plagg dove into the bag to lick the cheese powder off the sides. "Your suit is really tight and you've been that close to Ladybug while transformed before. You're just being a drama queen."

Adrien scowled. "The suit _feels_ thicker and it covers a whole lot more skin." It was _totally_ different. Besides, the suit, well, _hid more_. The Speedos, which were stretchy in all the wrong places, did not.

More screams echoed down the hallway. Ladybug's commanding voice carried above them all, distracting the akuma and keeping its attention on her as the swimmers got away. Adrien winced, knowing full well that he would have to go face Ladybug sooner rather than later and pretend that the whole incident hadn't ever happened.

After this was all over and done, he was moving to Antarctica. Even if it was freezing, at least he wouldn't have deal with the crippling embarrassment.

* * *

Marinette was very, very glad that there had been no one in the changing room to witness her- or rather, Ladybug's- blunder with Adrien. It meant no articles, no pictures, and best of all, no embarrassing conversations to remind her of the unfortunate run-in for ages after it happened. With the exception of her never being able to face Adrien as Ladybug ever again (and maybe not even as herself ever again), it would be like the whole encounter had never happened.

She hadn't been counting on the bruises.

Since the weather had turned warm for the upcoming summer months, students had taken to wearing t-shirts and shorts, and Adrien wasn't exempt from the trend. Even with what looked like concealer smeared over the blue-green bruises on his arms and legs, the marks from where she had rammed into him and where he had hit the floor were still obvious. Marinette blinked, taken aback.

 _Surely she hadn't run into him_ _**that** _ _hard, had she?_

"Dude, what happened?" Nino demanded as soon as he saw the injuries, yanking Adrien's arm over to inspect. "I know you were caught in an akuma attack, but I thought Ladybug's Healing Light always fixed everything from the attacks?"

Adrien winced, tugging at his sleeve as though trying to will it long enough to cover the bruises. "It wasn't the akuma that ran into me. It was Ladybug. I guess the Healing Light didn't count it as part of the attack."

From next to Marinette, Alya gasped as she looked Adrien over. " _Ladybug_ bruised you up? What were you _doing?_ " The concern in her voice was only undermined by her wriggling eyebrows and devious grin. Clearly Alya hadn't forgotten about the previous shower-related fiasco.

Both Marinette and Adrien flushed at the insinuation. While the teasing from the _previous_ shower incident had died down somewhat, Alya hadn't let it drop completely.

"She was on her way to fight the akuma and took a shortcut through the men's locker room at the pool," Adrien explained, rubbing his shoulder. Marinette guessed that it was probably bruised up as well. "She was going pretty fast and I sort of stepped straight into her path without realizing it. It was sort of like getting hit by a speeding bike."

Alya looked like the cat that caught the canary. "You were in the locker room? Were you, by any chance, in the middle of changing?"

Marinette groaned and thumped her head against the table. _Not again_. She had been _so. close._ to getting away without the constant reminders of her latest screw-up.

"No, I was coming in from the pool," Adrien shot back. He didn't mention the shower at all, for which Marinette was eternally grateful. Alya and Nino _never_ would let it drop if they heard that Ladybug had caught Adrien in the middle of a shower _again_.

(She only knew that he had been showering because she had just happened to Adrien had smelled like soap and not chlorine when she ran into him. It was _not_ a creepy thing to notice.)

(It was _not._ )

Alya grinned. "So no shirt?"

"No shirt and _Speedos_ ," Nino chimed in, smirking when Adrien shot a betrayed look at him. "Pretty boy here was complaining about them when he started swimming. Don't think I wasn't planning on getting you back for those mental pictures, dude. All that complaining about ' _they leave nothing to the imagination'_ and ' _they're so tight that it's practically like wearing nothing at all'._ "

Alya looked torn between thrilled and disgusted by the new information.

"And judging by the time of the attack and the fact that you were in the locker room, I deduce that you must have just finished practice and were either in the shower or just got out," Nino continued, grinning at Adrien's mortified expression. Marinette could feel her heart sinking. "And you mentioned in your text yesterday that races had been posted but you hadn't looked yet, so I'm guessing that your teammates were still in the pool area... but you weren't."

"What are you, Sherlock Homes?" Adrien groaned, burying his face in his hands. " _Stop._ "

Predictably, Nino didn't.

"And everyone knows that shower time is daydream time, especially if there's no one else in the room," Nino continued, ignoring Adrien's splutters and the small groan of protest from Marinette. "And daydream time means tight Speedos time, assuming that you didn't take advantage of the empty room and take them off."

"I didn't," Adrien muttered as Marinette choked. _Had he really been daydreaming about...?_

Nope. She was _not_ going to let her thoughts go down that path. She was scrubbing the whole incident from her mind. If class weren't about to start, she'd plug in her earbuds and hum as loud as she could until the conversation was over. Besides, Nino hadn't actually _said_ what (or who) Adrien had likely been daydreaming about. She was just jumping to conclusions. Highly inappropriate conclusions. Probably highly inaccurate inappropriate conclusions.

"Man, Ladybug _does_ just manage to run into you at the worst times," Nino exclaimed, grinning. "Of course, she wouldn't do that so often if you didn't shower all the time, Mr. Model Boy."

"I don't shower _all the time._ "

 _Yes you do,_ Marinette thought before resolutely wiping her mind blank again. _Not thinking about it, not thinking about it, not thinking about it..._

"Yes you do, dude. That's, what, the third time Ladybug's caught you in the shower?" Nino snickered.

"Fourth," Adrien muttered, face flaming. "Can we _not_ talk about it? At least I had _some_ clothing on this time."

"It might as well have been none, from the sounds of it." Nino snickered again.

"NOT TALKING ABOUT IT."

"Oh come on-"

"Nope." Adrien was looking a little cornered now as he looked everywhere except at his amused friends. It was obvious that he was looking for some kind of escape- something, anything-

Marinette couldn't hide her flinch as Adrien suddenly turned to her, eyes abruptly focused. Her overactive mind raced, immediately pouncing on the worst possible outcomes.

 _He's figured out that I'm Ladybug and he's totally disgusted that I've seen him like that and am listening to the conversation like a total creeper and oh my god what if he outs me right now and Alya and Nino think that I'm disgusting even though I never_ meant _to crash any of Adrien's showers and he probably never wants to see me or speak to me again I might as well move to Antarctica right now this is so bad-_

She was so busy panicking that she completely missed what Adrien said next.

"I- sorry, what?" Marinette blurted when it became clear that Adrien was waiting for some sort of answer. He didn't look angry or accusing at all, just a bit confused and maybe concerned. "I zoned out there for a bit."

"It's not a problem. I was just wondering if you wanted to work on our project later? I know it's mostly done, but I wanted to make sure everything was perfect for Thursday." Adrien flashed big green kitten eyes up at Marinette. "And maybe we can play some Ultimate Megastrike Three when we're done?"

He was asking her to hang out. Only thirteen hours after their last excruciatingly embarrassing encounter (she had called him _hot stuff_ to his _face_ and gotten caught oogling his rear), Marinette hadn't recovered yet and he was asking her to _hang out_.

So she really couldn't be blamed when her face made contact with her desk with a resounding _thud_ several times in a row as her friends looked on in amusement (in Alya and Nino's case) and concern (Adrien, naturally).

"Ah, I think we broke her with the Speedos talk," Nino joked. Even with her face plastered to the desk, Marinette could practically _hear_ his smirk. "All your fault, Adrien."

" _I_ was perfectly content to never speak of it again." A finger prodded the crown of Marinette's head. "You okay there?"

"'M fine." Before she could embarrass herself further, Marinette picked her head back off the desk. She could do this. She could manage to spend time together with Adrien without passing out from embarrassment or making any inappropriate comments. She'd managed it before, after all, and that time she had seen Adrien in all his glory. She took a deep breath before summoning her most confident smile. "Sure, we can meet later. What time are you free?"

If she was going to die of embarrassment, at least no one could say that she hadn't at least _tried_ to act normal.


End file.
